Thursday, May 10, 2012

Ireland: IFA Calls for YES Vote in Fiscal Treaty Referendum

This is the IFA Statement:

YES for the Irish Economy and Growth

Membership of the EU and a stable euro is critical for exports,
jobs, inward investment and economic recovery, through:
– Access tomarkets and exchange rate stability
– critical for our
export dependent sectors including the agri-food sector, with exports
of €9b in 2011;
– Low Interest Rates for investment and borrowing
– essential to achieve
growth targets of Food Harvest 2020 ;
– Access to funding –
to meet existing public expenditure requirements and
to provide access to European Stability Mechanism (ESM), if necessary; and
– Foreign Direct Investment in Ireland – supporting employment and
national income.

Agriculture is the only major sector with a common EU policy, the
Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), centrally funded from the EU
budget.
The CAP benefits both producers and consumers:
– Supporting the provision of high quality, sustainably-produced food at
reasonable prices and maintenance of the rural environment; and
– Supporting economic activity in all parts of the country, with 300,000 jobs
in agriculture and the food industry.
Negotiations on the future size and structure of the CAP post-2013
are on-going. It is important that Ireland has maximum influence
and goodwill in the negotiations.

Why Farmers and their Families
should vote YES to the Fiscal Treaty.

VOTE YES IN
IRELAND’S INTEREST

Questions and Answers on
The Fiscal Treaty. What is new about the Fiscal Treaty?

• The Fiscal Treaty puts existing EU legislation on the rules covering Member States’
debts and deficits into national legislation.
What are the technical debt and deficit rules in the Fiscal Treaty?

1. Balanced budgets should be the norm, with a limit of 0.5% on “structural” deficits.
2. A limit of 3% on budget deficits in years of economic downturn or exceptional
external event.
3. A 60% Debt: GDP ratio (or taking steps to approach this at a rate of 1/20th of the
gap per year).

• Note: These rules have already been agreed by Ireland and other Euro member states, through the Stability
and Growth Pact and the more recent ‘Six Pack’ of economic reform measures (2011).What happens if Ireland does not ratify the Fiscal Treaty?
• Unlike previous EU referendums, Ireland does not have a veto. Failure by Ireland to
ratify the Treaty will not prevent it coming into force.
• The Treaty will come into force at the beginning of 2013 once 12 or more Member
States have signed up to it.
• A country outside the Treaty will not have access to the new permanent bailout
fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM).
What is the potential impact of Ireland being excluded from the ESM?
• Ireland’s general government deficit in 2011 was €16b. The budget adjustment for
2012 (cuts in public expenditure and increases in taxation) was €3.8b.
• Ireland is currently dependent on ‘bailout’ funding from the EU/ECB/IMF to support
this deficit and to continue to fund its public expenditure requirements (e.g. health
and education). This programme of support runs until the end of 2013.
• If Ireland did not have access to the ESM, this would severely weaken the
Government’s ability to borrow funds in future at affordable interest rates.
• If the Government was unable to borrow funds, the budget deficit may have to be
eliminated immediately through cuts in public expenditure and increases in taxation.
• In this way, rejecting the Treaty could lead to even more austerity and job losses.
(Source: Irish Farmers Association)

About Me

This blog will deal primarily with Irish and International political issues. I have long believed that the greater the diversity of comment the stronger our democracy. On occasions analysis may be quite trenchant. I also intend to range over diverse cultural strands of Irish and world society. Sports such as Hurling and Rugby Union -primarily but not exclusively-will feature from time to time.
Other issues -that take my fancy- will surface.